Cat Laughing Last: A Joe Grey Mystery

By Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Book Overview

When the local village yard sales invite theft and murder, feline sleuths Joe Grey and Dulcie are into the case with their claws sharp. And when the two sleek detectives investigate the prime suspect's house, where the police have no cause to enter, and pass the information across the continent to the New York PD --Joe Grey's tomcat instincts nail the killer before the cops have a clue.

Cat Laughing Last

Violence and theft at a yard sale?

Murder because of an eBay auction?

The body on Susan Brittain's breakfast room floor and all her treasured purchases flung about and broken are not a good start to Susan's day. However, the criminal involvement is wider than she imagines, and may disrupt the lives of many others as well.Joe Grey and Dulcie suspect as much. With their unique ability to break and enter where the cops can't, the two cats begin gathering evidence. Meanwhile the cats' human friends deal with a famous author and his ill-tempered wife as they try to produce his play without coming to blows. And several senior ladies seek an innovative solution to retirement security, using their revenue from eBay and yard sales. But as Joe Grey and Oulcie dig into California history, they discover that certain artifacts, appearing at those same sales, hold the key to the puzzle. The crudely carved antique casks -- the legacy of a Spanish bride two hundred years dead-are the link the cats have been searching for.

Yet it is the young tortoiseshell, Kit, fascinated by the delights of theater production, who nearly gives away the cats' greatest secret. Kit, with her own surprising venture, almost alerts the entire village that these cats can speak and are more perceptive and sharper of wit than most humans could ever imagine.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006620951X
• ISBN13: 9780066209517
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Joe Grey Mysteries: Cat Laughing Last

Joe Grey and his lady friends are delightful!! I've read all of the series and each title has humor, intrigue, unexpected twists and turns in the plot. I recommend, whenever possible, that the series be read in sequence. Every title has a continuing plot(s)and it helps the reader to be aware of the development of these plots from previous titles. Shirley Rousseau Murphy writes the best of the "cat" mysteries.

Fun and fast

This is the first of Murphy's books that I had read. I was drawn to it by the animals (cats) and because it sounded so much like Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie books. I was not disappointed. The 2 cats solve mysteries for the police, although the police do not know that cats are phoning in the help. These 2 cats talk like humans, think like humans, but have all the extra senses of sight and smell that are not afforded humans. It is a good read without the gore of many murder mystery books. I highly recommended these for the fun and I will be reading more of them.

A charming book!

I think this is the best book of this series. There are 7 of them and each succeeding one has been better than the last. This series of books is about cats that are of a different sort than the usual pet cat. They are able to speak and read human language and are intelligent on a par with humans - at least. Ms. Murphy is a good writer and is obviously well acquainted with cats. The book's main charm is anyone who is well acquainted with cats should feel that if there were cats of this sort in the real world, they would act and perform in just the way the book's characters do. The cats have become interested in police work on the sly. They are able to go places and see things that human "cops" can't. They call in anonymous phone tips to put the police on the right trail and always ferret out things in an entertaining way. Molena Point, their town must be the best town in America except that it really has a lot of murders and other crimes for its size. It sounds like the ideal community and with such a wonderful "Feline Police Dept." to handle crime, why worry. The interaction between the cats and their human "house mates" is interesting and about what one would expect from sentient cats, if any did exist. The details of how the cats trail after clues and how they can go anywhere and do so many things is always entertaining and often humorous. The author has a finely tuned sense of humor.

The best!!

..I think this is the best Joe Grey mystery so far.It kept you wanting to read on to the next page.You want to know how Joe and his female mate,Dulcie gets the bad guy.I like how you don't know who the bad guy(or gal) is till the end.And sometimes what you think isn't what really is.If you have read the others you really want to read this one.And if you haven't read the others,you will want to.I can hardly wait for the next Joe Grey Mystery.

Teriffic addition to the series

Renowned author Elliot Traynor and his wife Vivi move from New York to Molena Point, California, so that the dying writer can finish his final novel and direct his only play, Thorns of Gold. However, the Pacific community residents quickly abhor the outsiders as Vivi's air of superiority gets on everyone's nerves and Elliot's health does not allow him to smooth the relationships. However, the townsfolk soon have deeper concerns than the nasty comportment of the Traynors. Someone attacked the two actresses competing for the lead female role in Thorns of Gold. Cat detectives Joe Grey and Dulcie, already intrigued by the Traynors, decide to investigate the assaults that left one actress dead. Neither feline realizes how close they will come to losing a life or two. The seventh Grey and Dulcie tale continues the same style humor and who-done-it that makes this one of the top or perhaps the best feline amateur sleuth series today. The two charming cats perform in a myriad of roles ranging from detective, counselors, and psychologists to their erratic human pets. CAT LAUGHING LAST is an amusing two tail tale that fans of award winning Shirley Rousseau Murphy's series will fully enjoy.Harriet Klausner